Traditional magnetic storage media, such as those employed in disc drives, are essentially uniform and continuous. The density with which data can be written is constrained by the superparamagnetic limit. A solution to overcoming the constraints of the superparamagnetic limit is to organize the magnetic media into a series of individual lands to create patterned media, such as bit-patterned media (BPM) and discrete track media (DTM). A benefit of this structure is the increase in areal density that can be achieved over traditional media. Patterned media use a technology that promises to extend the recording density of magnetic media.
However, one of the drawbacks of this structure is the residual topography on the media surface. When a disc head slider flies over the topographically challenged media surface, the disc head slider experiences a dynamic response to the topography. This problem is particularly relevant when the disc head slider has to fly over media surfaces with varying topography such as between data zones and with servo patterns. Additionally, the problem is compounded when the disc head slider has a skew angle (i.e. when the central longitudinal axis of the disc head slider and the tangential line at the disc head slider center are not aligned).